Netflix ‘Death Note’ Review

A troubled boy named Light Turner stumbles upon an ancient notebook that bestows him with the ability to kill anyone he writes in the book.

★★ ☆☆☆

In a sentence….

Deathnote US appeals to anyone that has never seen the original anime and manages to ignore plot holes it reveals in…

Good points

With its use of colour, imagery and the occasional throwback to the original anime, the film itself is well shot and dynamic in it’s framing

Lakeith Stanfield is a fantastic co-lead as enigmatic detective L, he has the mannerism and cadence down that felt familiar almost instantly. His energy was a welcome addition.

Ryuk was fantastically portrayed by William Defoe, creepy and subtly played in a film that tried heavily to stay in the real world

Bad points

The tragic misunderstanding of Light Turner was the downfall of this movie. The dichotomy between Kira the serial killer and Light the pretty boy/academic student was more of a shock than the pink-eyed Nat Wolf serial killer style that happened in this movie.

This was a looong move, even at 1:40, it dragged unbearably for the first half an hour. Things weren’t explained or stated explicitly, the rules of the Death Note felt annoying

Fridging of Mrs Turner and sister Turner said a lot about the attitude of this story

And/all backstory felt weird and clunky, an add-on that felt rushed after the fact

Mia Sutton was a dividing figure, interestingly played with her persona being more on the edge than in the anime, her initial introduction and lack of backstory

Overview-

Sexist and one dimensional, there could have been an interesting interpretation of Light’s justice in modern-day America but still felt like the fantasy of a certain demographic